"Isolation horror" and"contained thrillers" are my favorite type of horror/thriller film. I'm very lucky in that there are literally thousands of those out there. In fact, most horror films are set up that way. A small group of people stuck in an environment that is either familiar or completely alien. Either way work. The Thing and The Ruins are both examples of people trapped in a place they're unfamiliar with. In The Thing, these scientists are trapped in their Antarctic station. Now, they've lived there for months, I'm assuming, so it's not really unfamiliar. But the climate outside is not hospitable to them - so they're trapped in this stinky, stuffy, dirty place until the brutal winter weather subsides. Talk about claustrophobic! Enter an alien being that can turn into you and your colleagues and you've got a scary situation.

John Carpenter's The Thing was raked over the coals when it came out in 1982. Some critics put it on their worst lists of the year. With E.T. topping the box office, no one was in the mood for a nasty outer space dude. But I saw it in the theaters when it opened, and I was blown away. I couldn't understand why the film was so reviled. People have come around to it, of course.

The Ruins is a film that went under the radar but should be watched. I won't say much about it other than it has some cool stuff that I haven't seen before in a horror movie. I think it's one that is waiting to be rediscovered. Worth finding it!!

Thanks for reading and thanks for listening to the Cinemondo Podcast. Please subscribe, listen, like and write a review!! Happy Trails! - Mark